Earlier, the president had announced a gun-control task force led by Vice President Joe Biden to make proposals for new laws and actions in January.

USPresident Barack Obama on Sunday reiterated his commitment to push new gun-control legislation in the first year of his second term.

"The question is: Are we going to be able to have a national conversation and move something through Congress," Xinhua quoted Obama as saying during NBC's "Meet the Press" programme.

As many as 20 school kids and six adults were killed by a man in a shooting rampage at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, December 14. The massacre has led to calls across the country for stricter gun control.

Obama called the shooting "the worst day" of his presidency and pledged to put his "full weight" behind putting forward a package of new gun-control measures.

Earlier, the president had announced a gun-control task force led by Vice President Joe Biden to make proposals for new laws and actions in January.

"I'd like to get it done in the first year. I will put forward a very specific proposal based on the recommendations that Joe Biden's task force is putting together as we speak. And so this is not something that I will be putting off," Obama said in the NBC programme.

Obama also voiced scepticism about a proposal by a gun rights lobby group to put more armed guards in schools across the country to prevent future mass shooting tragedies.

"I am sceptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools. And I think the vast majority of the American people are sceptical that somehow is going to solve our problem," the president was quoted as saying.

The National Rifle Association, the largest gun-rights organisation in the US, has refused to support new gun-control legislation. The powerful US gun lobby has called for armed guards at every school in the country.